sunday's news in the stories that shape the week a million man antigovernment march that the ukrainian opposition referred to as a last chance is under way in kiev you're looking at live pictures from independence square. that is western politicians fanned the flames of the protests flocking to kiev to pledge their support for the crowd's anti-government sentiment . david versus goliath a tiny romanian village fighting to get an energy giant chevron off of its land. protesters from a remaining village claim a small victory against a major u.s. oil company that exploring for shale gas near their homes but the corporate giant is still looking to win the war. and its people across the globe or in the death of

nelson mandela we look at how the anti-apartheid leader is image has changed over the years. and a special swedish relationship is being revealed the scandinavian country has been helping america spy on russia's leadership. i welcome you watching r.t. international with me andrey farm. thousands have gathered in the center of the ukrainian capital kiev for a major anti-government rally that the opposition has called a last chance or going to organizers are hoping for at least a million protesters to show up artie's pull scott is in independence square for us . billed as the march over the million there's more people in the square behind me than we saw a any stage on the saturday but from the people that i've been speaking to there's

a feeling that the figure of one million could be quite an optimistic target now the atmosphere among the protesters at the moment they're in good spirits and the atmosphere is quite jovial but there is an air of uncertainty hanging over the ukrainian capital right now there are so far unfounded rumors surfacing on social networks that you the ukrainian special forces are heading to kiev to help disperse the crowds later on sunday while another rima doing the rounds is that a state of emergency could soon be declared by president viktor yanukovych now the so far unfounded rumors are so far only really hardening the resolve of the protesters who are continuing to defy the weather as you can say on the off dorothy's as well and another thing boiling the demonstrators is the support that they're continuing to receive from european officials now it's emerge that the u.s. is reportedly set to ask the e.u. to allow ukrainians visa free travel to e.u. countries as a way of forcing closer integration and on saturday

a group of emmy page descended on the ukrainian capital to reiterate european support for the opposition movement as my colleague arena galicia reports fully worrying is not the only one neighbor seeing and government anger on the street but for some reason peeves independence square has captured the minds of politicians from here up and the us we have seen a veritable parade of them here on some running out was with the opposition leaders and even sometimes they can do is the way to speak for the crowds and yet few seem to have made the pass to hear it from both sides from the country's leaders and their supporters. from an assistant to the secretary of state we stand with the people of ukraine who see their future in europe and want to bring their country back to economic have. off and unity two former polish president here the supporters of euro integration must remain firm and seize the momentum of the

protest this is the only way they can get you know coach to make concessions and current members of the european parliament we support civil society and democratic opposition in its claim to have possibility for the nation to express its will employ which means every election what began as a pro e.u. push descended into an out and out attack on the leadership the usual buzzwords of democracy justice and the will of the people were interspersed with not so subtle calls for a president they can acquire which to admit has been beaten this is clear where appearances mean john affairs are stalin conscious and they're not even hiding more so this is something that should be unacceptable as a bombing standard widely seen as a clear breach of diplomatic conduct it also raised questions in moscow thelema but i can imagine how our german partners would have felt if russia's foreign minister decided to attend a rally that was being held against german room i don't think they would consider

it a friendly step out of a meeting with opposition members is one thing but taking part in rallies that's interference and domestic a fat commission that the private mission early in the week the government survived a no confidence vote in the ukrainian parliament. which emerged from. defeated by the democratic process opposition m.p.'s went home to block the stage and stalling parliament. outside protest leaders called on people to take over as many civic offices as possible what should have been a public debate on the pros and cons of the e.u. friendship has descended into a foreign fuelled meddling to boost an opposition with a different axe to grind it in english go r t. meanwhile thousands of people have also gathered for a pro-government rally in the ukraine. capital many of the activists that support the blocking of the trade deal with the e.u. came from the east of the country to make their voice heard

a recent poll suggests ukraine is sharply divided on the issue of e.u. integration with more than seventy percent of people in the west of the country favoring the deal while the pro e.u. mood is shared by less than thirty percent of the people in the stock to. a prominent front affairs analyst and he says in the unlikely case of a revolution people in the east would take action to defend the government if the reason a pro e.u. neo orange revolution there would be a pro customs union pro russian counter-revolution so it would be the path to the civil war because let's face it in the industrial base in of the east they know that if they join the e.u. package they would of course they will never join the e.u. itself they would lose customs privileges in russia very industrial goods which are still being exported to russia in increasing quantities would certainly become

thirty five percent more expensive which would price them out of the market in the saying i doubt very much that e.u. countries will certainly express an interest in buying ukraine real goods so even if the reason attempt at the violent overthrow of the government there would be there finitely very sizeable counterforce ready to come onto the streets it is no longer two thousand and four when no one was willing to risk their skin for. the next hour r.t. also looks into the economic troubles ukraine faces in addition to the political crisis in venture capital with katie building. how bad is ukraine's financial situation right now is the economy really heading for a d. faults the markets are expecting and in dissipating a default by ukraine so it is a very serious situation the ukrainian central bank. is almost

broke and doesn't have any money here and won't be able to support the ukrainian currency going forward unless you preen gets credit mediately. residents of a tiny village in eastern romania have managed to stop a u.s. oil giant exploring fish shale gas near where they live at least for the moment the demonstrators in are refusing to leave the drilling site despite a heavy police presence saying the controversial extraction method could permanently damage the environment you see caffein off as the towns. in a remote part of romania a day of rage and fury. protesters stormed a work site operated by chevron and police responded with full force those who

didn't leave willingly were dragged away so you can see actually in what country we are living the police forces are behaving like a private projects on call twenty five so wrong. but what the people here want to know is who will protect them from big business this is one of the poorest corners of the european union but it's believed to sit on top of large reserves of valuable natural gas it's the sort of place that's changed little over the centuries and most of the residents still live off the land land which could soon be pumped full of toxic fluid in order to get the fuel under. it's a simple every day action drawing water out of the well for the villagers here and put in just this is really what's at the heart of the matter the environment and the water for them it's not so much about fighting chevron as it is about protecting both their lives and livelihoods which is the route through this all my

years i have been working on the land it is the only live the time now. during the day isn't your typical sort of protester a farmer all her life she and her husband were also some of the first villagers to speak out against chevron's plans to drill for natural gas in their community. we've heard horror stories of water supplies being polluted for it's no longer being realistic we don't want to risk everything for this company to make a profit chevron says it's committed to working with the local community to drill without damaging the environment it insists that it is abiding by all safety rules but that's not reassuring for farmers like the silly. people they could completely destroy us we just want to protect what's important what's we're on our land. and that's what they've done for more than a month now braving the cold villager set up makeshift tents across the company's drilling site chevron did temporarily suspend its operations but last week the camp

was raided by the police about the one i was punched in the face it was humiliating romanian but the police treated us like criminals i felt like we were sold out to do for brother bill retired ourselves together to form a human chain they were kicking ass and beating us with their bottoms i was kicked here there was another religion i was in hospital now because of how hard they had him in the stomach. and on saturday more violence would began as a peaceful demonstration was broken up by force another arrest the protest are adam and but demonstrators continue to get taken away in this car in some ways it's a case of david versus goliath a tiny romanian village fighting to get an energy giant chevron off of its land but despite the arrests despite the protests and despite the clashes the chevron trucks are already here and the work looks set to go on reporting in to ingest romania for

r.t.e. i'm lucy catherine. and environmental campaign ahead and governments are using false promises to cover up the needless technology. extracting shale gas isn't cheap and one of the arguments that the government was putting forward the shale gas was that it was going to bring down our energy bills but your energy analysts and even now the secretary of state has said himself that this won't bring down energy bills because we're in a european market so we don't think it's going to affect fuel poverty we don't think it's going to have a huge economic benefit or certainly get media coverage we're getting more local people in the area becoming aware of the risks of fracking through these local protests so we think it's all adding up and it's all helping to build a movement against fracking because people here are saying they don't want to take a risk so we need the local councils to listen and we also need our members of parliament to listen and make sure that the government is hearing that this isn't popular this unwanted in the u.k. and it's unnecessary.

sunday is a national day of prayer in south africa to mark the death of nelson mandela a leader who fought racism and inequality in his own country he became an international symbol of freedom and justice however that image took decades to evolve after battling the oppressive apartheid regime slip reports. he's the man who pulled a troubled and divided land back from the brink of civil war the man who after twenty seven tough years behind bars walks free from prison in his heart was not to avenge or i think that his greatest legacy to this country is reconciliation. in the last three decades the world tirelessly polished the image of nelson mandela and image recognized around the world only coca-cola is better known better men who

struggle for racial equality again south africa's ruling white minority had a dark side and world has conveniently forgotten about nelson mandela the need of a struggle. a radical. someone. embraced violence as a necessary political instrument at a particular juncture in our history this house was the secret headquarters of the african national congress it was here in the early sixty's that mandela and his comrades launched the armed struggle it was also here that most of them were arrested put on trial and sentenced to life in prison south african journalist chris bishop believes the one thousand nine hundred sixty four trial that saw mandela and his comrades sentenced to life helped turn the world in their favor during the trial. these gentlemen who are on trial the rivonia trial as they went from being the accused of being people in the dark as slowly transformed

they became the benjamin franklin's of africa they became the freedom fighters they began the man of principle who is standing up merely for the rights of others and it's only to turn the world opinion around from a vile to terrorist to one of the greatest freedom fighters to have ever walked the earth the story of nelson mandela is remarkable a man who stood up for the rights of people everywhere but also a familiar tale of governments putting a garland of flowers around your neck one day and a rope the next. r. t. johannesburg south africa. well mandela who of course was renowned for his inspirational speeches but on our website right now we've lined up some of his words that rarely make it into the mainstream media i do head to r.t. dot com for a look at what the iconic leader's thoughts were on america's influence in the world the invasion of iraq and the israeli palestinian conflict.

without the international coming up very shortly. authorities seized the debts of their country men in a unique solution to financial woes while millions in europe hover over the edge of poverty. and insights into the future of syria's religious minorities after a rebel attack on a christian village the stories coming. from countries rich in natural resources are the poorest africa is a colony it's a colony of the big corporations it's a colony of someone's home leaders who are under the thumbs of the big corporations so they have to beg from the world bank's development of social programs goes to pay back debts all country is drowning under the amount of debt. and so every

year they would borrow money. and they would use that same amount of money to pay back. all that money really. the wages of debt. write the scene. and i think. foreigners. can still. be in the. next week provider of spying on the russian leadership to the us from getting high profile political figures the country is also being. gaijin industrial

espionage against russia's energy companies the accusations come from swedish t.v. citing documents leaked by edward snowden and a recent program called mission investigate its chief editor told r.t. what they discovered. we have revealed that. very close relationship between the swedish defense radio authority f.r.a. and american counterpart and a say and according to the documents. that f.r.a. have spied spying on the russian leadership and they are passing this information on to n.s.a. we got access to these documents thanks to edward snowden so for we had on to have any details more than the documents are mentioning. by talking about johnnycake intelligence by talking about the classic intel against and they also

mentioning cables the spokesman of f.r.a. didn't give any comments but. when axed asked about being. seen as a leading partner that's the way that they spell it in these documents for a is a leading partner to n.s.a. then he says. that's flattering he ses so that's the only comment we have received so far well with sweden strategic location in the baltic the country has always been the end the america's national security agency at least that's according to investigative journalist duncan campbell. sweden always had a lot of a covert intelligence relationship with the west through the me years of cold war. they've been secretly. to the club with a big audience in which they offered to give to their prime minister in return for

betraying we received security off all of their neighbors and money for them citizens sweden was the largest collaborator when you're with the internet i think program run by would be. dr roizen group are being rescreened income groups. and so it does so because of its direct access to go forward to going it's no surprise that you see it you. would want that as well as everything else you can take from st. despite public criticism some governments protect their spying programs is something essential earlier this week the editor of britain's guardian newspaper faced questioning by m.p.'s who believe that the publishing of snowden's revelations put a dent in national security journalistically mady believes it's all part of the public flogging campaign it's theatre because it's actually for internal consumption it's really for the united kingdom and david cameron is trying to

demonstrate that he's the strong man that he's tough on terrorism that he's not going to let journalists you know tell him what to do and therefore he's coming out with these statements which for the rest of the world thinks pretty crazy because everyone is saying from president obama downwards that we should have this debate about what are the limits of surveillance and what kind of oversight should we have and it's really only david cameron and the u.k. government that's saying we shouldn't do that. and as we report online the n.s.a.'s appetite for private data seems only to be growing as the tentacles of the u.s. intelligence can he turn to why in the world after it successfully launches a new surveillance satellite the logo speaking for itself. plus is cheering the sign for maine's holed up in ecuador's london embassy the world famous whistleblower marks his third year spent in virtual detention in the u.k. without ever being charged you can find all the details at r.t. dot com. in syria

a group of nuns who went missing after rebels took control of the ancient christian village of maloof have appeared on video saying their evacuation was a rescue operation and not a kidnapping in the footage they claim they left the village to escape shelling however the authenticity of the video has been questioned there are reports the militants wanted to exchange the nuns for a thousand prisoners held by the government a journalist who's been to syria several times because believe the rebels were there to attack the monastery not to save the nuns. we have to see that. doesn't have any military strategic well you but it is a symbolic well you it is a very old it's an ancient christian pilgrimage with a very modern history so when we see you know where the nun sorry phil when this one man is telling that they are treated well and all like this we shouldn't

forget that the shelling the tank on the monastery wasn't turned off by the syrian army it was turned off by so-called rebels who are in reality nothing else then terrorists that's that's the fact so and we saw in the past the couple of books really all sort of kidnap christians of course they are saying we are treated well we get good food we should look on the facts on the very fight for it's what. but it. was protected the second time within several weeks. but an arty crew was covering the events in lieu of during the combat operations this autumn and you can watch our full reports including dramatic images from the village they are online at r.t. dot com iceland's alive and kicking the country's economy has rebounded after the recession which struck hard five years ago with the state treading its own path to financial well being instead of trying to save its

bankrupt banks the government let them go to the wall the leadership then decided to reject a last deposit repayment scheme swayed by protesters who said the plan was unfair instead every household in the country will now have twenty four thousand euros written off their mortgage banking executives accused of causing the crisis in the first place are also being pursued by the state professor of binary economics rodney shakespeare believes that iceland is setting a remarkable example. you must rely on your own national bank for your own uses for your own real economy for the spreading and if you don't do that you'll be trapped into debt in the same way that what you got greece you've got iceland which you've got every country in the world is being tracked into increasing debt and all that happens is that they increase the levels of the debt

and smash the populations down we need a revolt against this global financial system and in its own way iceland is setting a reasonable example thank you iceland. but the international monetary fund is criticizing its icelandic government's policy saying there is little space left for additional debt relief measures and by leaving the insolvent banks to fend for themselves the country's already let down its biggest credit is an r.t. cre went to two of the biggest u.k. and germany to gauge your pain. i was great yeah i was just to get rid of you perfect because then obviously you could spend that money for meals. certainly would help those families just that hurdle that that sort of money that would make to be walking would be better for the country woman for the government. because the public good just goes up and i don't think the country can afford it it would be very great to you know everyone could buy a house. i think it's

a good thing we used to have laws in germany where you could get subsidies as a home owner you know but that's a good thing about this is ok if you don't get i think for individual people it would be good news but not for the country you never know where the money comes from for such gifts. some international news in brief now a series of attacks across the iraqi capital has killed at least twenty eight people one of the bombs was hidden in a car and detonated near a crowded market this stage no one's admitted carrying out the explosions fish is being one of iraq's most deadly at r.t. dot com we do have an online project that documents the civilian costs since the american led intervention. around one hundred supporters of the far right democratic party of germany have protested against asylum shelters for refugees in leipzig the march was set to end near one of the centers recently opened in the city but riot police stopped them before they reached the facility the rally was

met by anti fascist activities chanting slogans about refugees being welcome in the country. the central african republic has declared three days of mourning for the nearly four hundred people killed in recent fighting between christian militia is a muslim rebels one thousand six hundred french troops have been deployed there to stop the violence after the u.n. authorized military intervention in the country meanwhile critics say france is trying to solve its own domestic problems by getting involved in the military operation. had we examine the reasons for africa's still crippled economies despite massive international financial aid.

we often see the middle east as a place of constant turmoil and revolution but people in thailand seem to be very fired up as well masses of protesters are force a government ministries to shut down by storming them with human waves one such ministry is the thai equivalent of the american f.b.i. which has been accused of killing around ninety people in a crackdown on those who support ousted prime minister taksin shinawatra who is the brother of the current leader while people are crying out for democracy with accusations of violence against protesters so where is barack obama john kerry the mainstream media i mean whatever sort of group of rebels protestors are i mean freedom fighters rise up for democracy are we supposed to arm them like in syria and or bomb their country back into the stone age like in libya serbia iraq some protests explode across the mainstream media with calls for intervention and others are almost totally silent like thailand and bulgaria where there have also been strong links of buildings less than a month ago i might be a conspiracy theorist but the selective coverage and selective concern for some

humans rights and off the rights of others well it smells a bit fishy to me but that's just. opinion. vent to do last year twenty two million hc tears of fertile arab land was stolen from african farmers by see other words it was handed over to all bought by hedge funds and multinational societies. so when the bank says yes we have to encourage foreign investment. to give this pool exploited african land to the fruit farms in mosques a in buffalo or to new york hedge funds. did your because there they are capable of making this land profitable now that's.